January 10, 2026, 1:58 AM EST. SpaceX lifted a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral on Jan. 9, 2025, deploying 29 Starlink satellites on the Starlink 6-96 mission. The booster, tail number B1069, landed on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. It marked the 556th booster landing for SpaceX. Roughly an hour later, the satellites deployed, lifting the constellation to more than 9,400 Starlink satellites in orbit, per astronomer Jonathan McDowell. In a separate action, the FCC authorized SpaceX to expand to up to 15,000 satellites and to add 7,500 V2 satellites, with new orbital shells at 340-485 km. SpaceX says lowering about 4,400 satellites to ~480 km should improve space safety as solar activity wanes.
